Bali, 04/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - The stakeholders in the WTO agreement on government procurement (GPA) are holding their course for the entry into force of this agreement - which was revised in spring 2014.
As part of the ministerial WTO conference in Bali on Wednesday 4 December, trade ministers from the countries that are party to the plurilateral WTO agreement on government procurement (Armenia, Aruba, Canada, the EU, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, the US) re-affirmed their commitment to ratify the revised version of the GPA as quickly as possible in order to ensure its entry into force by 31 March 2014. Adopted in March 2012, the revised version of the GPA updates the 1994 text and broadens the related commitments on access to government procurement (see EUROPE 10967).
The revised agreement will enter into force when it has been ratified by two thirds of the 15 member countries. Seven parties have ratified it so far - Liechtenstein, Norway, Canada, Taiwan, the US, Hong Kong and the EU. On Wednesday, several parties stated that they would submit their approval in the coming weeks. The ministerial statement also welcomed the measures taken by some WTO member states to join the GPA - notably New Zealand, Montenegro and China.
The GPA commits its participants to disciplines on transparency, competition and good governance in government procurement, and it covers the acquisition of goods, services and infrastructure by public authorities. Its objective it to open up, as much as possible, government procurement markets to international competition. It aims at making government procurement more transparent, and provides legal guarantees of non-discrimination with regard to the products, services or suppliers of any party to the agreement. At the same time, it provides flexibility for developing country parties to manage their transition to a more internationally competitive government procurement regime.
Government procurement contributes nearly 20% of global GDP. According to WTO estimates, the gains of the revised GPA in terms of government procurement for the businesses of the participating countries could amount to between US$80-100 billion per year. (EH/transl.fl)